David James Price (born 23 June 1955) is an English former
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
who played as a midfielder. Price played in the
Football League for
Arsenal,
Peterborough United
Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...
,
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
and
Leyton Orient
Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a profession ...
.
Career
Born in
Caterham
Caterham () is a town in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valley but rises to equal ...
,
Surrey,
[ Price was snapped up by Arsenal in 1970,][David Price]
Arsenal F.C. Retrieved 10 February 2010. as a prodigious young midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
who captained England schoolboys. Whilst at the Gunners's Academy he went on to win the FA Youth Cup of 1971. Price made his debut for Arsenal at the age of 17 on 9 May 1973 in a First Division match against Leeds United
Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...
. However, he played mostly with the reserves for the next few years.
After a loan spell at Peterborough United
Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...
, Price broke into the Arsenal first team in 1977–78, playing 51 matches that season. This was noteworthy as he had previously made only 13 appearances for the club. His regular spell in the Arsenal side coincided with the Gunners' FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
runs of the late 1970s, where they consecutively got to the 1978 to 1980 finals of the cup. Price thus played three times at Wembley with Arsenal winning the 1979 FA Cup in a 3–2 win against Manchester United. Price got an assist in the game as he set up Brian Talbot
Brian Ernest Talbot (born 21 July 1953) is an English former football player and manager. He was capped six times for the England national team.
Talbot played in midfield for Ipswich Town, Arsenal, Watford, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albio ...
for the opening goal.[ Price also played in Arsenal's 1980 ]Cup Winners' Cup
The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...
defeat at the hands of Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
, on penalties.
Price lost his place to the veteran John Hollins
John William Hollins (born 16 July 1946) is an English retired footballer and manager. He was initially a midfielder who, later in his career, became an effective full-back. Hollins, throughout his footballing career, featured for clubs such a ...
at the start of the 1980–81 season. Subsequently, he was sold to Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
in March 1981, in a part-exchange deal which saw Peter Nicholas move the other way. In all he played 176 games for Arsenal, scoring 19 goals.
Price's spell at Crystal Palace was not a successful one, as he was hampered by injuries and made only 27 League appearances in two seasons. After he had a brief spell at Leyton Orient
Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a profession ...
, he ended his playing days due to injury, at the age of 28.
He later became a taxi
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choic ...
driver in Croydon
Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...
.
Honours
;Arsenal
* FA Youth Cup: 1971
*FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
: 1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, David
1955 births
Living people
English footballers
People from Caterham
Association football midfielders
Arsenal F.C. players
Peterborough United F.C. players
Crystal Palace F.C. players
Leyton Orient F.C. players
English Football League players
British taxi drivers
Wealdstone F.C. players
FA Cup Final players